The Rotary Club of Botany East Tamaki Inc, who include this school among the schools and colleges in its immediate area that it incorporates in its programmes, spent this Monday night at the Junior College, meeting some of the pupils and staff, and following up on progress of the “Trees For Survival” unit the Club sponsors.
Pupils are encouraged to work collaboratively together. They use Sun Microsystems Ultra Thin Client computers mounted on the back of large screen monitors, and the student Smartcard system installed gives teach student access to any workstation in the College.
Each student at Mission Heights Junior College and the adjacent Primary School owns a Smart Card worn on a lanyard around their neck.
This card is used to access the Sun computers and is printed with the child’s photo, acts not only as an ID tag but also a unique access point to the computers. The card is not only for identification, but also data storage which allows the child to have an instant refresh that allows each child to move freely from computer to computer without needing to remember to save their work. All they have to do is plug the card in, and they are instantly back to where they were. No more carting lots of books around.
The main purpose of the clubs visit however, was to see our “Trees For Survival” unit and hear what the children looking after the unit thought about the project.
Over the last two years, they have grown a variety of vegetables which are used by the school in other projects and by other school groups as part of a wider appreciation about our ecology and sustainability.
Prior to visiting the unit, we were treated to a Power Point presentation showing the project which enabled us to see what the progress of the unit has been over the last 2 years and see a video of the children in action last year on Tree Planting day. It was clear that planting day was a great day for the children participating as not only did they get a day out of school, they also got to see the status of the year before's planting effort and how much the trees had grown in 12 months.
It was pointed out that the children participating not only grew and planted trees to stabilise land and re-establish native Bush, but they had also established vegetable and fruit gardens at the school to learn more about where our food comes from. This has lead to other groups within the school, Science and Food Technology classes, wanting to participate in this garden project and expand the produce grown for consumption and study at the school to a wider group.
Mike Jaggs article in Presidents “Mike’s Mention” weekly report:
Any concerns we may have still had on the effectiveness of our sponsored “Trees For Survival” growing unit at Mission Heights Junior High School were well and truly laid to rest following tonight's visit. Whilst we may justifiably harbour some concerns over the TFS organisations ongoing communication, it was extremely satisfying to see how the teachers and children of the school have not only embraced this project, but have in just a two years completed 2 plantings and won awards for their schools “Enviro Club”
The five year 8 students, Connor, Shene, Amanda, Friyan and Harleen, provided us with a great presentation of their schools efforts and future goals. It was also great to taste their 'appetisers' baked using fresh vegetables from their own school garden. I for one was very impressed with how the school and students have integrated the “Trees For Survival” project into their curriculum and then extended it to the school garden which works as a teaching aid and provides fresh vegetables and herbs for their Food Technology classes. So impressed, I shall be recommending to some trusts that they invest in the schools latest project to build a new and larger self sustaining garden facility.
